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Reuters
Security forces were deployed outside factories and plants on Wednesday
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has called for efforts to regain control after 10 days of street protests and strikes sparked by disputed elections.
The official result gave him 80% of the vote, but the opposition described the poll as fraudulent.
Mr Lukashenko says he has ordered an end to the unrest in the capital, Minsk.
The move signaled an escalation just as European Union leaders were holding a virtual emergency summit on Belarus.
‘Not free nor honest’
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU did not recognize the result of the election: “They were not free and they were not honest”.
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EPA
Ms Merkel said the EU would give its support to civil society in Belarus
Ms Merkel added that EU leaders condemned “the brutal violence against protesters as well as the imprisonment and use of force against thousands of Belarusians”, which followed in the wake of the disputed election.
Thousands of Protestants have been arrested amid deadly clashes with police.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that “the people of Belarus took to the streets peacefully, and the authorities responded with violence and this cannot be accepted”.
She said the EU was “sanctioning responsible for violence, repression and falsification of election results”.
Both Mrs Merkel and Mrs von der Leyen stressed the need to open a dialogue between the authorities and the opposition in Belarus.
What did Mr Lukashenko say?
Mr Lukashenko, who has led Belarus since 1994, said he had instructed police to stop protests in Minsk. “There should be no more harassment in Minsk,” official Belta news agency said during a Security Council meeting.
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“People are tired. People demand peace and quiet,” he added. He said he had been instructed to tighten border controls to prevent an influx of “fighters and weapons”.
He also warned that workers in state media who went on strike in protest at the elections and the subsequent decline in protests that they would not get their jobs back. Russian replacements have apparently been brought in. Mr. Lukashenko also accused those picketing outside factories of harassing workers.
He had previously accused the opposition of “trying to gain power”.
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EPA
Actors of the Kuplovsky Theater were among those who stood out
The BBC’s Jonah Fisher in Minsk said there were some signs this morning of a change in Belarusian authorities’ tactics in Minsk.
Our correspondent said a checkpoint appeared on the road leading to the state TV building with police checking the identities of everyone who walked into the building. Strikes at factories around Minsk have also been thwarted by police.
Why the escalation?
Mr Lukashenko’s remarks came shortly after the opposition’s exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, urged EU leaders to cancel the election.
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The 37-year-old, who is leaving for Lithuania after being detained hours after the vote, released a video class on Wednesday.
She said President Alexander Lukashenko had “lost all legitimacy in the eyes of our nation and the world” and called on the EU to support back what it called the “wake of Belarus”.
She said: “People who went out to defend their vote in the streets of their cities in Belarus were brutally beaten, imprisoned and tortured by hanging on to power in despair. This is currently taking place in ‘ in the middle of Europe. “
Ms Tikhanovskaya has formed a “coordination board” with plans for “new, fair and democratic presidential elections with international oversight”.
What is the position of the EU?
After their virtual summit, European Union leaders said they would impose sanctions on those involved in election fraud and what they described as the shocking and unacceptable suppression of peaceful protests.
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“We strongly support the right of the Belarusian people to determine their own destiny, and the EU will shortly impose sanctions on a substantial number of individuals responsible for violence, oppression and electoral fraud,” said EU Councilor Charles Michel.
German Chancellor Merkel said EU leaders were calling on Mr Lukashenko’s government to “stop all violence” and that all political prisoners be released unconditionally.
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Referring to Mr Lukashenko’s ally in Russia, Mrs Merkel said there could be no “external intervention”.
On Saturday, Mr Lukashenko had said Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised to provide assistance in the event of an external military threat. But on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was no need for Russia to help Belarus militarily or otherwise at the moment.
Ms Merkel said that “we have made it clear that military intervention by Russia would make the situation much more complicated”.
More on the protests in Belarus
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